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With labor negotiations stalled, Star-Ledger publisher again threatens to shut down paper

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The Star-Ledger newspaper building in Newark. The newspaper's publisher again threatened to shut down the paper by the end of the year if its unions do not make $9 million in labor concessions.
(Donna Gialanella / The Star-Ledger)

NEWARK — With union negotiations at a stalemate, The Star-Ledger’s publisher once again threatened today to shut down the state’s largest newspaper by the end of the year if millions of dollars in labor concessions are not forthcoming.

In a letter sent to employees, Star-Ledger Publisher Richard Vezza said negotiations with three of the paper’s production unions — the pressmen, engravers and machinists — are going well and it appears they will reach an agreement with the newspaper. However, the newspaper’s negotiators have made little progress with the mailers, the largest of the four unions.

In June, Vezza said The Star-Ledger lost $19 million last year and is on target to lose a similar amount this year. He threatened to shut down the Newark-based paper Dec. 31 if the four unions do not agree to $9 million in labor concessions by Sept. 27.

"The differences between the Mailers’ proposed savings and the Company’s proposed savings are so far apart that, while we are still hopeful that an acceptable resolution can be achieved, we have serious doubts that, with less than a month to go, an agreement can be reached," Vezza said in the letter mailed to union members Wednesday and e-mailed to other employees Thursday.

The negotiations between the mailers and the newspaper have been contentious, Vezza wrote.

"Based on comments made at several bargaining sessions by members of the Mailers’ bargaining committee, such as — ‘go ahead and shut it down’ and ‘we’ll supply the lock,’ it appears that they would rather see the Ledger cease publication, rather than provide sufficient savings to keep the newspaper operating and save jobs," Vezza said in his letter.

Ed Shown, president of the Council of Star-Ledger Unions and head of Teamsters GCC Local 8-N, said the newspaper and the mailers are not close to an agreement. But he is optimistic the two sides will reach a compromise.

"Ultimately, we are going to get a deal," Shown said. "They are working hard to close the gap ... Nobody wants to see the doors shut, that’s absolutely for sure."

The Star-Ledger, the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, is New Jersey’s largest daily newspaper. It has one of the largest Statehouse bureaus in the nation and has won numerous state and national awards for its reporting and investigations, including the New Jersey Press Association’s general excellence award the last three years in a row.

Members of the mailers union — Teamsters-New Jersey Mailers Union 1100 — met for more than four hours Thursday to consider their next steps. At the end of the day, the union contacted Star-Ledger negotiators to propose resuming talks late next week, said James Reuter, the union’s recording secretary.

Reuter said the union was surprised by Vezza’s letter.

"It doesn’t seem to serve any purpose to me," Reuter said.

Union officials said they have not reached a deal because Star-Ledger officials proposed more than $4.4 million in cuts, including eliminating 55 of the mailers’ 121 highest-paid workers in addition to eliminating pension and retirement benefits and reducing lower-paid mailroom helpers to a four-day workweek. Mailers handle the newspapers after they emerge from the presses, helping insert advertising supplements and preparing the papers to be loaded on delivery trucks.

Under a counterproposal the union was finalizing Thursday, the mailers will propose a plan in which 40 of their workers will accept severance packages, saving the company more than $2 million, Reuter said. The union was also working on proposing additional savings in other areas.

"We’re working really hard," Reuter said.

In his letter, Vezza said the mailers union’s current offer is more than $2 million short of the concessions the newspaper is requesting. Vezza declined to comment Thursday on the specifics of the negotiations, but he reiterated the company will begin preparing for a shutdown if the Star-Ledger does not get $9 million in concessions from the unions.

"I’m very glad to hear the unions want to get back to the negotiating table," Vezza said.

The union negotiations affect about 300 represented employees, including pressmen, warehouse and inventory employees. The Star-Ledger’s newsroom, which has about 170 reporters, editors and other staff, is not unionized.

The Star-Ledger’s owners previously threatened to shut down the paper in 2008 if costs were not cut. Within a few months, the paper announced new deals with two of its unions and more than 200 buyouts from its nonunion employees.

Earlier this year, The Star-Ledger eliminated 34 jobs, including reporters, photographers and editors, in its first ever large-scale layoff. The reductions come as newspapers across the country continue to struggle with drops in circulation and advertising revenue as more readers get their news via the internet.

The Star-Ledger is part of Advance Publications, owned by the Newhouse family. The private company is not required to publicly disclose earnings.

Several other Advance publications, including newspapers in Michigan, Louisiana and Oregon, have drastically reduced their staffs, reduced the number of days they print or reorganized their companies to focus on their websites.